Marketing Mix in Organizational Strategy Context

Introduction

The following paper analyzes the organizational strategy and the marketing strategy for a company. The relationship between the organizational and marketing strategy of a company is highlighted along with the relevant effect that the organizational strategy has on the marketing mix of a company.

Organizational Strategy

The organizational strategy is encompasses the broad vision of the company and its strategic goals (Kotler & Keller 2008). The strategy for any organization depicts its mission and where the company wants to see itself in the future. “Effective organizational strategy takes a holistic and integrative view of organizational needs over continuous time horizons and maps out a portfolio of initiatives to transform the organization from its current state to a desired one” (‘Why Organizational Strategy Matters’, 2008).

This strategy is concerned with the interaction of the company with its operating business units, its stakeholders, with the external environment as well as with its core values. The four key components of an organizational strategy include visions, mission, comparative advantage, and identified long term goals. The characteristic of the organizational strategy is such that it has a focused purpose, long term continuity and future perspective a well as identified strategic advantages.

Marketing Strategy

Marketing strategies for companies often include both short term and long term tactics that are employed by the organization (Borden 1984). The long term tactics are more strategic in nature and reflect the organizational goals and values of the company as highlighted by their organizational strategy. The Marketing strategy of any company is composed of the various goals and actionable objectives that have to be attained in order to satisfy the strategic objectives of the business.

As with the organizational strategy, the marketing strategy is developed before alongside the development of the organizational strategy. Moreover the marketing strategy derives its strategic orientation from the main organizational strategy of an entity. Companies that extensively use new online communication technology have a separate internet marketing strategy in addition to their marketing strategies.

The main elements of a marketing strategy include identified target market and their respective segments, unique selling points, the employment of technology and the objective of the company to satisfy the needs of the customer through provision of products and services. A successful marketing strategy is one which highlights the needs of the customers, the products, how it satisfies the demands of the customers, and the marketing channels used.

The marketing strategy is used to derive actionable steps to advertise market, manage public relations as well as form the marketing mix of the product and services offered. However it is also important to have measurement and evaluation steps in place to analyze the effectiveness of the marketing strategy. One best way to evaluate the performance and the success of the marketing strategy is to determine the level of customer satisfaction.

A research conducted by Sharma (2004) highlight that there is a positive relationship between the marketing strategy of a company and its organizational strategy. Marketing strategy enabled the company to increase its organizational; performance. The new market development strategies highlighted in the marketing strategy have a positive long term effect on increasing the sales of a company in its target markets. Additionally the forecasting activities derived form the marketing strategy also enable a company to have a positive relationship between the newly identified market segments and the total return on assets (Sharma, 2004).

The increased used of communication technology and internet has integrated the marketing aspect of the company with the concept of building relationships with customers and endorsers resulting in a form of marketing known as relationship marketing (Gronroos). This relationship marketing orientation is increasingly being reflected in the marketing strategies of the company as well as in their strategic organizational goals.

Marketing Mix

The main elements of the marketing mix are based on the four Ps of marketing as highlighted by Kotler that include products, price, place and promotion. The marketing mix provides the role that is played by the product, price, promotion and placement of the products and services in terms of marketing the products and services and providing them to the customers. Extensive research over the years has depicted that these elements can be further categorized into the product mix, the price mix, the distribution mix while the promotion mix can form the communication mix including mass communication mix, personal communication mix and publicity mix (Waterschoot & Van den Bulte 1992). However for the purpose of this paper the basic marketing mix is being considered.

The product element in the marketing mix for a company highlights the features of the products and services offered, depicting the physical attributes and differentiation of the product from those of the competitors. If a company has the organizational strategy and objective of providing their customers with products using innovative technology, then using innovative technology in the design and manufacture of the product and the way the service is provided top the customers can depict the relevance of the marketing mix of the company in terms of products is with the organizational strategy and values of the company to be customer centric, providing them with high level of product satisfaction with the use of innovations and technology.

The price element in the marketing mix for a company provides the pricing strategy employed to value the product and services and earn profits on the sale of the products and services to the consumers. If the company is based on premium value addition and prestige, then the pricing mix reflects a premium price based pricing strategy targeting the affluent market. On the other hand if the company has the organizational objective of making their services available to the masses in an affordable manner, then the price strategy in the marketing mix reflects this by depicting lower prices or bargain rates.

The placement element of the marketing provides how the company delivers the products and services to the end users highlighting the channels of distribution employed. Where the organizational strategy of the company is to use innovative technologies, the placement element of the marketing mix can reflect this organizational objective by employing traditional as well as alternative distribution channels like those based o the internet.

The company can make use of e-commerce based shopping portals on the internet through which customers can view, select and make purchases for the products. Through this the company can make use of evolutionary internet technology based online interaction and communication technology combined with specialized software for customization of products online to sell the products to the customers through a differentiated channel.

The promotion element of the marketing mix highlights the methods used to communicate about the product and service with the consumer and creating awareness for them. While traditionally the mass communication media of TV, Radio, Print as well as bill boards, point of sale and outdoor advertising were used by companies to promote their products and services.

However the availability of the internet technology has enabled the companies to specifically target their customer segments with customized promotion and marketing campaigns. The use of such promotion strategies can reflect the customer centric orientation of the company and its innovative technology focus expressed in its organizational strategy.

References

2008, “Why Organizational Strategy Matters”, Charlesmore Partners International. Web.

Borden, N., H., 1984, “The Concept of Marketing Mix”, Journal of Advertising Research Classics, Vol. 2.

Brownlie, D., Saren, M., 1992, “The Four Ps of the Marketing Concept: Prescriptive, Polemical, Permanent and Problematical”, European Journal of Marketing, Vol. 26, 4, pg 34.

Gronroos, C., “From Marketing Mix to Relationship Marketing: Towards a Paradigm Shift in Marketing”, Asia-Australia Marketing Journal, Vol. 2, No. 1.

Kotler, P., Keller, K., 2008, Marketing Management, Ed. 13, Prentice Hall.

Sharma, B., 2004, “Marketing strategy, contextual factors and performance: An investigation of their relationship”, Journal of Marketing Intelligence & Planning, Vol. 22, Issue 2, p128-143. Web.

Waterschoot, W., Van den Bulte, C., 1992, “The 4P Classification of the Marketing Mix Revisited”, Journal of Marketing, Vol. 56, 4, pg 83.